What did people use before toothpaste was invented?

Commercial fluoride toothpaste as we know it didn’t exist until around 1900.

But humans were cleaning their teeth long before then – with no chemical products whatsoever. Evidence even suggests that people back in hunter-gatherer days had much healthier teeth than the people of today.

So what did they use? Ancient tooth cleansers range everywhere from twigs to ground up oyster shells.

Those don’t methods don’t sound too appealing. But here’s one I found that does:

An All Natural Toothpaste Alternative

It’s super easy to make, and it works great. All you need is the following three ingredients:

That’s it. Get a glass jar and mix them all together in a 1/1/1 ratio.

Experiment with different proportions. If you like a drier grittier toothpaste, add more baking soda. If you prefer that gel texture, add more coconut oil. And if you like that extra minty taste, add more peppermint oil.

FYI – Here are two tidbits of info I learned that might help you:

Coconut oil solidifies at 76 degrees F – so depending on the temperature, the thickness and texture will vary. It’s normal should be expected.

Baking soda is salty – I never knew this until now. If it’s too salty for you, just add more of the other two ingredients to cover it up.

Try it out and see if it works for you. I’ve been using it myself for several months now, and I have no plans of switching back anytime soon.